Whilst the general consensus appears to be that there will be 3 or 4 in and out this Summer I suspect it will be far more dramatic than that. I suspect that by the standards of our Club the Board will give PL a hefty sum to spend in the summer as they will fear the second season syndrome and realise that it will be a lot harder next year to achieve what has been achieved this year. As always the players budget will include wages - I suspect that the maximum wage cap will be increased - and PL will be given £?m plus anything he can get in transfer fees and anything he can save in the wage bill? Whitbread and Ward have not signed new contracts - is it because of hesitation by the Club or because the players want to see if they can get one last money earning move by moving on a free. They are both at the age where players think that way. If they both move on then we need 2 replacements. Drury and Wilbs are also out of contract. PL might want to give them each another 12 months as emergency cover but he might let both go to free up some of the wage bill. I would suspect that if he can get money for Barnett, Lappin and possibly Crofts he will sell and I am sure Chris Martin will not be a Norwich player next year. I doubt if he thinks that any of the so called youngsters are going to make it in the Premiership and if that is the case there is no sense in keeping them and sending them out on loan. I suspect he will try and sell them to lower league clubs. If McDonald was worth £100k then Korey-Smith, Adeyemi and Francombe should bring in £250k between them and free up a few quid on the wage bill. If my thoughts are correct then there could be a lot of gaps in the 24 man squad that have to be filled with purchases and loans which will make it an interesting summer at Carrow Road especially if on top of what I have suggested other Clubs come in for some of our more established players. Would PL turn down an offer of £5m for Morison or £3m for Surman for example? Could the Club stand in the players way if one of the big Clubs come in with big money and big wages for one of our best players? Pilkington to Liverpool springs rapidly to mind. Interesting times.
Don't think we will see too many outs other than fringe players. Don't think many of our players will attract interest from clubs regarded as bigger than ourselves. Think it will just be more of the same, no guessing who Lambert will bring in. Will be interesting to see if he decides to sign any foreign players and break the mould he has previously set. Also pretty sure this second season syndrome is just a myth. Isn't it something like only 6 teams have gone down in their 2nd season since the prem has begun?
Be careful about wanting to change anything or suggesting room for improvement 1950canary people are very sensitive about it around here. As for players to leave I'd go for Chris Martin, Wilbraham, Lappin, Barnett, Crofts, Smith and I'm not very sure on Ward as back up, Drury is the only player I cannot decide on at the moment as his had some excellent games and kept some big names quiet. Nothing personal against these players they've been great servants but I'd rather have players of higher calibre to fill their boots.
I seem to recall him saying he would look at the foreign market afterbabyear in the pl, but a player at a time.
Lambert is an incredibly ambitious guy. He knows the position of the club, as in a large chunkette of income has to go to service existing debt, etc, but while he is at our club, everything he does will be in it's best interests. Who he lets go and who he signs remains to be seen (we all have our hunches, don't we Jay ) but we know it will be a step forwards - not sideways or backwards. If it means losing a few such as Korey, Chris Martin, Crofts, Barnett etc, hey, we'll be stronger next season as a result of their replacements.
Given how close the mid-table positions sit points-wise imagine the incentive for PL to finish the team as high as possible. Isn't it 1 million of Sky money bonus per position above 17th? I'm sure that will all go towards the kitty. An extra 5m finishing 12th instead of 17th will go a long way. Could make a massive difference!
Pretty much agree with your choices, though feel Wilbraham may stay. Would like to see us go for Gunter, Bridcutt, Snodgrass and Rodriguez and see how many want to play at Carrow Road nexxt season. Hopefully, we'll have a fully fit Vaughan, so it will be like having a new player as well.
I'm not going to go on about saying which players should go - I've made my opinion enough on that subject. But I think it useless to say what players we would like to sign. Nobody was really saying 'let sign Johnny Howson' or 'we should buy Ryan Bennett' in January, but Lambert did and look how they've turned out! Lambert has a better eye for a talented player than the rest of us put together! So instead of saying I want Jay Rod, I'm gonna say I trust Lambert to get the right player!
I feel one player who isn't discussed much but who we must keep is Russell Martin. Lambert seems to have gone a long way towards shoring up the defence in buying Bennett, but we could still have the kind of injury problems we've had this season and no matter how big your squad is that can happen. Martin has the advantage that he can play (and has played) very well in any of the defensive positions. He's wonderful back-up against bad fortune. Up front I just hope Vaughan can get a run of games or he is going to go down in history as a good player that never was. For me, the attack is where our biggest problems lie now, despite all the goals we score. One reason for that is simply that we play an attacking game, and I think sometimes our defence gets unfairly blamed for the number of goals we ship. Re. the Man City game, for all Wilbraham's efforts, we do need more precision up front. And we can't keep relying on Holt forever. Re an earlier post, I would sell Morrison if we could get £5m but no way I'd let Surman go for £3m.
I agree with alot thats been said here but i would not like us to sign gunter. i really dont think he is a that great player. i think the club should do all they can to keep Naughton. at whatever cost we should sign him. i think he is fantastic and will be a world class player one day. I think we stand a good chance as well esp if spurs get champions league footie next year they will want to bring in a few bigger better players. with players going i agree as has been said lappin, c.martin etc will be off. lambert has shown that there is no place for being sentimental ie doherty, nelson. lol a_skwared do you think we will ever see vaughan ever fit. he has bags of tallent and is probably one of our most technicaly gifted players. i remember when he broke into the everton team he was awsome, i just fear he may have been a bad buy as will always be injury plagued!
as hairy mary says, a strong finishing league position this term will make such a big difference in the calibre of player we can afford. it may mean one extra quality signing so we need to finish as high as we can. top 10 is a possibility - we've had a tough run in but on paper, blackburn away, liverpool home and villa home look winnable while arsenal away isn't impossible as wigan proved. if we could get 6+ points from those four games we'd have a real chance of top ten
I agree with most comments on this thread but what PL will do is nobody's guess. I would be keen to keep mist of the current squad who have been exceptional and that includes Wilbrahim. Smith looked O.K. when I saw him play for Barnsley recently (in a bad team it has to be said) but not sure he is Premiership quality. Maybe of the regulars Morison looks to be the most vulnerable as he does appear to have lost his focus in the second half of the season and looks unsettled. The rest is anyone's guess but no doubt we will be strenghtened come next August. ILWT OTBC
We can all speculate but I'm sure Lambert knows who his targets are and what funds he has to spend. Of course, things will change depending on what position we end up in the league and who he offloads as well (I expect quite a few will be going somehow) but getting cover at full back and increasing our striking options must be a priority. For my part I'd like us to sign Naughton (a must please), Rodriguez, Snodgrass (or Matt Phillips if Blackpool don't go up), Bridcutt and Paul Taylor. I'd fight tooth and nail to keep Surman unless someone offered silly money for him. Will be an interesting summer for sure.
I will also add, surman and r martin only have 1 year left on there contract and i read a couple of months ago that newcastle were going bid for both of them in the summer! Players like these need new contracts now, rather than leaving them to run down
Heard an interview with Lambo saying if they stay up there are 7/8 players he wants. Im pretty sure he made a bid for Rodriguez in January and we know he's a fan of Snodgrass. He made a bid for Benno in jan then followed up in the summer, he knows what he wants and generally the man gets it.
They didnt make a bid for jay rod, but they made an inquiry and that was all! As for snodgrass, he has been offered a new contract and to be made the highest paid at leeds (rumour to be 15k p/w). Bates has said that will have an answer sooner rather than later with that one,
agree. just an enquiry about jay rod - must have been put off by the price, especially as we had no idea which division we'd be in at that time and scoring goals was hardly a problem for us! i think he'll make a firm bid this summer, same with snodgrass - he won't sign a new deal till he has assurances over who will be arriving at elland road this summer - that won't be sorted out until june i'd imagine. hoping bridcutt comes in - very underrated player. we know from experience when lambert targets a player he keeps tracking them until we get them! he'll throw a few newbies in too no doubt, none of which we expected!
Snodgrass won't sign a contract at Leeds until he knows a lot more about his options and what Leeds plans are I imagine that a good offer could tempt bates as they need funds to revamp their team.
Interesting that Jay Rodriguez gets mentioned quite a bit just recently - and Jordan Rhodes not at all? Too expensive for Norwich, perhaps?
